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Aspire to Give® Academy empowers adults with the vital life skills to make wise choices, helping them build better lives and a brighter future.
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Cohort (Group) Learning
(8-15 Learners)
Cohort learning is the most effective approach for many adults navigating life transitions, emphasizing three key sources of knowledge: self-discovery, peer learning, and expert guidance from a success coach. This structure enables individuals to gain insights about themselves, learn from peers, and benefit from their coach's support. Together, these elements create a supportive environment that fosters growth, encourages collaboration, and equips learners with essential life skills.
Community Learning Groups
Peer learners, united by a common life transition, learn and support each other through shared experiences, empathetic engagement, and collective problem-solving. Community groups include veterans, young adults, recovering singles, and other common interest groups.
Lesson Exercises
Every course lesson includes a learning activity tailored to spark questions, foster reflection, and stimulate personal growth.
Success Coaches
Each cohort (group) of 8-15 learners is guided by an experienced, highly qualified Success Coach who serves as a mentor and resource. The Success Coach meets virtually with the group multiple times to enhance learning, guide learners, and answer learner questions.
Veterans Transition Empowerment Program
(V-TEP)
The V-TEP program of two bundled courses empowers veterans to chart their own unique path as they transition to civilian life. Join a supportive cohort led by an experienced coach, where veterans learn, share, and navigate the road to successful transition.
Four Pillars of Learning
The Academy's state-of-the-art inquiry-based, transformative curriculum is based on four pillars of learning:
1. Personal - tailored to you.
2. Positive - uplifting & appreciative.
3. Probing - questions spark learning.
4. Practical - applicable to real-life.
Five Beliefs
1. Appreciate individuality
2. Give sincerely
3. Practice reciprocal generosity
4. Live with purpose
5. Choose wisely at life's junctures
Coming Soon
Course #3
The Art & Science of Financial Generosity
Engage both your loving heart and your thinking head as you learn to give genorously to loved ones and special causes. You will learn over a dozen strategic tools and strategies to give wisely to create a lasting legacy of signficance and impact.
Coming Soon
Course #4
Compose a
Legacy of Love
Compose a Legacy of Love invites you to construct an enduring testament of your life's journey, aspirations, and wishes, carefully framed in love, generosity, and consideration. In this course you compose and convey your legacies, align your resources, organize your estate affairs, and offer treasured guidance to loved ones to reduce stress, save money, and ease administrative hassle upon death.
Smart Goal Setting
Establishing specific, realistic, measurable goals in personal, family, career, and financial areas is crucial for navigating life transitions effectively. It creates clear guidelines for success during periods of change to craft your best life.
Coming Soon!
Digital Downloads
Each of the four courses of the series includes digital downloads of articles, research, references, and checklists that supplement the course video, workbook exercises, and cohort peer learning.
Crossword Puzzles
In addition to lesson exercises, each course includes 4 crossword puzzles as a fun way to learn the terminology. Being fluent in conversation with peers, coaches, mentors, and professional advisors is essential for successfully navigating life transitions.
Coming Soon!
Blog
Previous and new blog posts will enhance course and workbook content, equipping learners with extra references and resources on cutting-edge topics like the philanthropic frontier, effective financial generosity tools and strategies, and mastering life transitions throughout the lifespan.
Bundle #3
Legacy by Design
The Legacy by Design Program helps you give intentionally and generously to loved ones and special causes. Learn over a dozen financial giving strategies and how to avoid unintended consequences of financial generosity, evaluate nonprofit beneficiaries, and compose a legacy of love through letters capturing your aspirations, life-lessons, and values. Organize your personal affairs with this bundle, ideal for those with financial resources to share and in the sunset years of life. Legacy by Design is bundled courses #3 & #4.
Pivot to Purpose
Transition Program
Embark on a transformative journey with the two-course Pivot to Purpose Transition Program. Guided by a seasoned coach, adults navigating life transitions develop self-awareness, leadership, and renewed purpose and gain vital life skills to master life transitions.
Coming Soon
Course #1
Pivot Points: Mastering Life's Transitions
Pivot Points: Mastering Life's Transitions is an engaging, interactive course designed for adults at critical life crossroads. It offers ten comprehensive lessons and an insightful workbook, equipping learners with practical strategies and reflective exercises to gracefully understand their own life journey, navigate life's changes, and foster self-awareness and resilience for life's future crossroads.
Coming Soon
Course #2
Pathway to Purpose: Stories & Questions
for Clarity
Pathway to Purpose aligns your passions and strengths with your refreshed purpose and transition goals, offering workbook exercises, storytelling, and reflective questions for deep learning and decision-making. Learn seven practical thinking tools for clear, confident choices. Includes references for further reading. This courses is the second course of the V-TEP and Pivot to Purpose Transition Bundle.
7 Thinking Tools
In the Pathway to Purpose course, learners will enhance their decision-making skills with seven easy-to-use critical thinking tools. These tools will empower individuals to make more well-informed choices, allowing them to navigate life's challenges with greater confidence, comfort, and clarity.
Contact Us
Success Coaching
Our Success Coaches nurture and mentor a cohort of 8-15 learners, providing vital guidance, support, and resources. Through periodic virtual meetings and email support, they cultivate essential life skills, ensuring every learner feels empowered and connected.
Meet Our Coaches
Highly trained and experienced coaches will lead the various life transition cohort groups, including military veterans transitioning to civilian life. Coaching profiles will be available on the Academy's website.
Seek, Ask, Give, & Do
We embrace an educational philosophy anchored in Reciprocal Benevolence, where learning flourishes as a natural outcome of mutual kindness and support:
- Seek with an open heart, and you shall discover knowledge.
- Ask with caring curiosity, and wisdom will be imparted to you.
- Give generously, and in return, gain deeper insights.
- Do share the kindness, empathy, and respect you desire.
We nurture wisdom through caring questions, deliberate generosity, and thoughtful kindness.
Study Groups
Cohorts of 8-15 members from the same group are usually in the same class, promoting sharing and support among learners.
Pivot Points, Lesson 1
Learn the Lingo Answers
Crossroads of Life
During life, we encounter pivotal moments of choices, challenges, and changes that shape an unknown future. Examples include:
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Military veterans in transition
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Young adults (ages 18-28)
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Life rebuilders (bad choices or situation)
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Those recovering from a setback
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Recovering singles (lost relationship)
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Career changers & empty nesters
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Retirees scouting for opportunities
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Those at the sunset of life
Mutual Benevolence
Aligned with a shared purpose and guided by the principles of Reciprocal Benevolence, each contributing organization benefits both individually and collectively. This harmonious philosophy encourages mutual support, understanding, innovation, and growth for the greater good.
Strengths-based Resourcing
Srengths-based resourcing unites each organization's distinct strengths for the common purpose of maximizing the impact of life-skill education. Resourcing may include access to:
- Audiences with Life-skills
Educational Need - Expertise & Knowledge
- Financial Funding
- Additional Resources
- Policy Influence & Advocacy
- Best Practices
Essential Life Skills
In today's complex world, many adults lack the essential life skills needed to succeed. While formal education provides an academic and vocational foundation, there is often a void of vital life skills such as:
- Self-leadership
- Communication
- Problem Solving
- Financial Literacy
- Emotional Intelligence
- Time Management
- Interpersonal Social Skills
- Critical Thinking
- Adapting to change
A: It had too many problems!
But then it learned that every problem has a solution!
Pivot Point
A pivot point is a significant change in perspective or life situation that results in choices, challenges, and changes in life's direction.
Self Leadership
Self-leadership is guiding oneself effectively, mastering life transitions effectively by investing time wisely to build relationships and to hone and enhancing skills for personal growth and success.
Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize, understand, and manage one's own emotions, and to empathize with and influence the emotions of others.
Socratic Method
The Socratic Method of inquiry involves asking a series of probing questions to challenge assumptions and stimulate critical thinking, leading to greater understanding or insight.
Generous Inquiry
Generous Inquiry, a 5-step process derived from Socratic and appreciative inquiry methods, fosters critical thinking, open-mindedness, and collaborative problem-solving through structured, thoughtful questions and deep reflection.
Self Leadership
Life's transitions provide opportunities for growth. Mastering self-leadership, emotional intelligence, and vital soft and life skills is crucial for managing challenges. Cultivating these qualities leads to a fulfilling life and positive relationships. True leadership starts with self-leadership, by looking inward, enhancing self-awareness, and committing to personal development. These practices help navigate transitions with purpose and resilience.
Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence involves the ability to recognize and manage your own emotions, as well as understand the feelings of others. By developing emotional intelligence, you can enhance your capacity to navigate through life's various transitions more effectively. This is achieved through enhanced communication skills, a reduction in stress levels, and the cultivation of resilience to adapt to challenges.
Self Awareness
Self-awareness is understanding your own emotions, strengths, weaknesses, and values. It helps you navigate life's pivot points by allowing you to make informed decisions based on personal insight, adapt to changes smoothly, and align your actions with your renewed purpose and life goals, ensuring you stay true to yourself during critical life transitions.
Prospective Success Coaches
Transition Roadmap
In the Pivot Points Course (C#1), learners are introduced to a proven 5-step transition roadmap to pursue their renewed purpose to the next chapter of their life and foster a better tomorrow.
Aspire to Give® Academy's
Innovative Approach
1. Self-Leadership: We nurture a self-leading positive mindset and develop personal life skills such as communication, critical thinking, emotional intelligence, resilience, and time management.
2. Success Coaching: Recognizing the vital roles of parents, teachers, mentors, and coaches, our courses are available individually or in groups (cohorts) led by skilled Success Coaches. This approach provides the coaching needed to build essential life skills and better lives.
3. Mutual Benevolence: Driven by universal wisdom and the desire to give, we promote intentional generosity that strengthens relationships, enhances teamwork, provides support, enriches lives, and fosters a brighter future.
The Aspire to Give® Academy's transformative curriculum is ideal for adults navigating a life transition at a crossroads of their life.
Reciprocal Benevolence
Seek, Ask, Give, & Do
Reciprocal Benevolence is anchored in the ageless, universal wisdom where purpose, meaning, and impact flourishes:
- Seek, and you shall find.
- Ask, and it will be given to you.
- Give, and you shall receive.
- Do onto others, as you would have them do onto you.
Guided by this wisdom and the embedded human desire to give, we nurture a culture of intentional generosity that builds better lives and fosters a better tomorrow.
Thriving Communities
Social Sharing for Societal Solutions™ empowers adults to build better lives and fosters thriving communities through community champions for:
- Stronger Families
- Life-skilled Workforce
- Economic Development
- Reduced Inequalities
- Community Enrichment
- Healthier Communities
Community Champions
Just as each player on a championship team has unique talents, each organization may have special strengths that will help adults develop the vital life skills needed to build their best lives. Champions include:
- Foundations & nonprofits
- Businesses & Professionals
- Government Agencies
- Colleges & Universities
- Community Groups
Success Coaching
Success Coaching of cohorts of 8-15 learners provides compassionate guidance to adults in need overcoming challenges, adapting to change, and making wise choices at life's crossroads. Success coaching during these pivotal moments is vital for success and essential for building better lives, fostering thriving communities, and creating a brighter tomorrow for all.
Transition Challenges on Life's Journey
As we journey through the crossroads of life, we face challenges, choices, and changes that sculpt our future. Mastering essential life skills is key to shaping the next chapter. Those disadvantaged who may require vital life skills include:
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Disconnected Young adults (ages 18-28)
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Health-challenged military veterans
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Troubled adults seeking a fresh start
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Adults facing adversity
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Young Military veterans in transition
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Adults experiencing a job loss
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Recovering singles (lost relationship)
Generous Questions
Generous Inquiry is the practice of asking open-ended, thoughtful questions to foster deeper understanding, build meaningful connections, and promote mutual growth and empathy.
Appreciative Inquiry
Appreciative Inquiry is a collaborative process that focuses on identifying and leveraging an organization's strengths and successes, encouraging positive change by exploring what works well, fostering innovation, and envisioning future possibilities through positive questioning and storytelling.
Conversational Setting
The conversational Setting, in the context of a meaningful conversation, is an environment where engaging conversations occur, characterized by active listening, mutual respect, and open dialogue, enabling both parties to share perspectives, ask thoughtful questions, and foster deeper understanding.
Active Listening
Active listening involves fully concentrating, understanding, responding, and remembering what is being said. In a generous conversation, 70-80% of the interaction should be dedicated to active listening, ensuring a genuine and empathetic exchange.
Plato's Allegory of the Cave
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave demonstrates how shifting from seeing only shadows in the spirit of the personal setting to a transcendent perspective can help perceive the full reality outside the cave and how that change in viewpoint may alter personal understanding of circumstances, discover truth, and reality.
Four Spirits
- Source: The foundational motivation for generosity, rooted in personal or spiritual beliefs.
- Self: Personal engagement and alignment of generosity with one's values and identity.
- Setting: The environment and relationships influencing generosity.
- Substance: The outcomes of generous acts, both tangible and intangible.
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Purpose
Purpose, central to the Generous Inquiry process, is the renewed sense of direction and that inspires and motivates adults through life's transitions, bringing meaning, hope, and direction, and for their future.
Gerotranscendence
Estate
In legal terms, an "estate" refers to all the assets and property owned by an individual at the time of their death, which are subject to distribution according to their will or state law.
Legacy
Legacy is the enduring impact of one's life, encompassing tangible and intangible contributions, relationships, and influences on others, reflecting personal values and achievements.
Accumulation Phase
The accumulation phase, lasting from birth to about age 55, focuses on investing time to build talents, education, skills, financial resources, and relationships, shaping the foundation for future phases of life.
Opportunity Phase
The opportunity phase is the second of three phases. With our gathered resources of wheelhouse gifts, good health, and time freedom, adults in this phase between about ages 55 and 75 pursue lifelong dreams, renew their purpose, and bring hope, meaning, and impact to their lives.
Distribution Phase
The distribution phase, starting around age 75, focuses on sharing one's love, lessons, values, and beliefs with others, and organizing one's personal affairs with the purpose of making a meaningful impact and giving back through one's accumulated gifts.
Logotherapy
Conversational Goals
Conversational goals are pre-planned objectives for a discussion aimed at clarifying understanding, providing direction, and seeking guidance to help an adult navigate the choices, challenges, and changes during a life transition.
Passion
Passion, in the context of a life transition, is the intense and motivating emotion that drives an adult to discover and pursue a purpose, inspiring them to overcome challenges and embrace change with enthusiasm.
Life Transition
Retirement
Retirement is a positive life transition offering time-freedom to pursue lifelong dreams and passions, embrace new opportunities, and experience personal growth, marked by increasing gerotranscendence and deeper fulfillment.
Wheelhouse Gifts
Wheelhouse gifts are the special mix of personal strengths, such as time, talents, money, and relationships, that people use to promote mutual kindness, growth, and success, improving their own lives and those of others.
Trust
Trust is the confidence that others will act with integrity, kindness, and goodwill, fostering reciprocal benevolence and a mutual aspiration to give, ensuring a supportive and reliable relationship.
Mentor
A mentor is a trusted, experienced guide who helps navigate life’s choices, challenges, and changes, offering support and wisdom with a spirit of mutual benevolence and personal growth.
Circles of Influence
- Inner circle of trusted confidants
- Advisory circle of trusted advisors
- Learning circle of mentors, teachers, coaches, & many others
- Beneficiary circle of those who benefit from your generosity and support.
Networking
Networking is the process of identifying, developing, and engaging personal, trusting relationships with mutual benevolence to navigate the challenges, changes, and choices during life’s transitions at crossroads.
Open-ended Questions
Open-ended questions are caring, intentional queries that prompt longer responses and foster trust, such as "What do you think about...?" or "How did you feel when...?" They enhance relationships by encouraging meaningful conversation and mutual benevolence.
Generous Conversation
Generous conversation involves asking caring, intentional questions and actively listening, fostering trust and meaningful dialogue in the spirit of mutual benevolence, and strengthening relationships through genuine, empathetic engagement.
Generosity
Generosity is the innate human aspiration to give selflessly, fostering reciprocal benevolence and building trusting relationships. Rooted in timeless wisdom, it supports successful life transitions by embracing mutual support and kindness.
Tuition Scholarships
Consider a Bulk Purchase
Equip your organization with Aspire to Give Academy’s life-changing courses to assist individuals in mastering their life transitions. By purchasing in bulk, you are reaching out and investing in education to make a significant impact on lives, families, and your community.
Community Champion
A community champion connects with like-minded partners to share organizational strengths and resources, empowering the disadvantaged to develop vital life skills for themselves and their loved ones, ultimately creating better lives, thriving communities, and a brighter future.
Guided Learning
(One-on-one with Success Coach)
Guided learning offers an ideal balance of flexibility, independence, and personal one-on-one support from a success coach. This approach empowers adults navigating life transitions by emphasizing self-discovery and expert guidance tailored to individual needs. Learners progress at their own pace while receiving personalized insights and guidance from their coach, ensuring that they stay on track and overcome challenges. The structure fosters growth in a supportive environment, equipping learners with essential life skills and the confidence to make informed, purposeful decisions during their transitions.
Independent Learning
(Self-paced; no coaching)
Independent, self-paced learning offers complete flexibility, allowing adults navigating life transitions to progress on their own terms. Without the need for peer interaction or success coaching, learners focus entirely on self-discovery, engaging with content at their own pace. This approach provides the freedom to tailor learning around individual schedules and personal needs, fostering self-reliance and autonomy. Though independent, this method equips learners with essential life skills and insights, empowering them to adapt and grow during life's transitions, all within a structure that is as flexible as it is empowering.